The storyline: In 2007, Trump, then a reality TV star, was booked for a Wrestlemania showdown, The Battle of the Billionaires, with WWE owner Vince McMahon. In a Hair vs. Hair stipulation, Lashley would fight for Trump, McMahon would be represented by Umaga. Lashley won and, with Trump’s help, shaved McMahon’s head.

The reality: Lashley is now an Impact Wrestling star who will appear at the company’s Bound for Glory pay-per-view Sunday at Lansdowne Park’s Aberdeen Pavilion (with TV tapings scheduled Monday-Friday), and he likes Trump — on both a personal basis and as president of the United States.

“He’s not racist,” said Lashley. “One time I got interviewed about Trump. I said all good things about him. Everything they asked me, I answered. I watched the interview later, they spun everything and made it seem like I was down on (Trump). I’m not going to bury him, I have no reason to. He was cool with me.

“I look at our Dow (Jones), I look at our unemployment, I look at our deficit, I don’t care if the media spins everything. Because of the fact this guy is not being PC, everybody hates him? I don’t care about that. He’s been producing what we need.”

OK, now that’s out of the way. So what about Bobby Lashley — national amateur wrestling champ, multi-time professional wrestling champ and a talented mixed martial arts fighter? The guy oozes athleticism.

Bobby Lashley

He started amateur wrestling in seventh grade.

“My freshman year in high school, I weighed 110 soaking wet,” said Lashley. “I was a little bitty guy. But I was scrappy. I stopped playing football my sophomore year because I was too small. I was a running back and I could run like the wind, but when I got hit, I really got hit. So I gravitated more to wrestling — I got to go against guys my own size and I was killing it.

“I started hitting growth spurts, my biggest one was when I was at the Olympic training centre. One day, Kurt Angle came in, he was doing a vignette with WWE. He kept coming over to me, ‘Have you ever thought about pro wrestling?’ I was a fan of Kurt. He was looking at me because with an amateur wrestling background, he had a lot of respect for amateur wrestlers. I’m looking at him, saying, ‘This is Kurt Angle, superstar WWE.’”

Even after a call from WWE in the spring of 2003, Lashley wasn’t interested in becoming a pro wrestler, at least not yet. He had his sights set on the 2004 Olympics. His destiny changed the summer of 2003 in Colorado Springs during a bank robbery.

“I’m in line at the bank, a guy kicks open the door firing a gun. A bullet went over my shoulder,” said Lashley. “I took a dive, landed on my knee and split it completely open. I had two surgeries to put it back together.”

With a rehab schedule of six months and the Olympic trials in eight months, it was a tight timeline. Another surgery threw a wrench into his Olympic plans, then WWE called again as he was sitting on a couch with his leg brace on.

“I began training for pro wrestling like I was training for the Olympics,” said Lashley, whose first WWE match was in Toronto — against Simon Dean. He’d also step into the ring with the likes of John Cena, The Big Show, Randy Orton, Mick Foley, Rob Van Dam and Booker T.

“I could do stuff that most people my size couldn’t do,” said Lashley. “I was 255, 260 pounds. I could jump up, do splits in the air and touch my toes.”

Then, an MMA opportunity came along.

“When I was out (of WWE), I moved over and started training (for MMA),” said Lashley. “I said I was going to take eight fights. Now I’m 17 fights into it (with 15 wins). I consider myself passively aggressive. I’m the nicest guy. But when we train, we train hard. You shake hands with your partner, then, excuse my language, you beat the s— out of each other. They say to be a good fighter, you have to be able to take a good punch. I don’t think that’s what it is. I think to be a good fighter, you have to be able to deliver a punch, hurt somebody and be OK with it.”

He’s certainly paid his dues with blood, sweat and tears.

“I was in amateur wrestling actively for about 20 years,” said Lashley. “Seven months out of a year, I was stuck in a hot dungeon where we beat each other up to get better. Independent wrestlers say, ‘Oh, man, I travelled across the country and wrestled for $50 here or $100 there.’ I say, ‘I travelled across the world for 10-15 years and wrestled for a medal or a piece of paper.”

Lashley “loves professional wrestling.” And he’s pretty fond of MMA. Impact Wrestling has hatched a storyline which is a collision of the two — leading to a tag match with Lashley and King Mo vs. Moose and mixed-martial artist Stephan Bonnar.

“It’s a storyline, but at the same time there’s a bit of legitimacy to it,” said Lashley, who’s comfortable within the character he’s created for himself. “We pulled (MMA) into professional wrestling and turned up the volume a bit.”

“I like being a little sinister. My character’s somebody that says, ‘I don’t care what I have to do to get where I am, I’ll do it. If I have to step on somebody, spit on somebody, beat somebody down, cut somebody, stab somebody in the back, I don’t care what I have to do — I’m winning titles.’ ”

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